NEED

Age Range: 14 & up

Pub Date: Jan. 1st, 2009ISBN: 978-1-59990-338-5Publisher: Bloomsbury

Leaving behind her warmly quirky realism to jump on the supernatural-romance bandwagon, Jones leans too hard on overly recognizable motifs. Zara’s mother sends her to a remote, frigid Maine town to regain her spirit after her father dies. Boys immediately adore her, but only one electrifies her in return: Nick, an inhumanly fast runner. Polite Ian’s also inhumanly fast, but new friends Issie and Devyn seem to favor Nick, despite his faintly dangerous vibe. A strange man stalks Zara, and she admits that he’s been lurking in her life since the day of her father’s fatal heart attack. He’s a pixie, needing a queen to enhance his power lest he kidnap boys to drink their blood. Several scenes seem illogically manipulated for plot tension; choppy continuity undermines readers’ ability to distinguish awkward prose from Zara’s valid grief. A sense of the derivative outweighs welcome flashes of wit and humor. This one’s for readers already hooked on smug supernatural males and incurious heroines less informed than anyone around them. Twi-lite. (Fantasy. YA)